If I were to start a new company tomorrow, I would want to put a lot of eggs in the basket called search engine optimization (SEO). SEO can be the shortcut to being found by your target audience when you establish a new company as an entrepreneur – and that is why it also played an important role in my own company’s growth.
What is SEO?
When you use Google, I’m going to guess that you first search for a particular word and then click on the page that catches your attention the most. However, saying guess isn’t actually the most suitable word – because I know for a fact that 67% of all searchers click on one of the first five hits and that 92% never get beyond the first page.
Wouldn’t it be cool if it was you and your company’s products or solutions that could be the ones on the first page?
For this, SEO is a crucial part of the puzzle. This is because it’s a way for you and your company to appear higher in the rankings on Google when your potential customers search for the products or services offered by your company.
If you search for something in Google’s search engine, it is not random what appears on page 1 – rather, the results are carefully selected by Google’s algorithm, taking into account the relevancy for users.
Therefore, let me give you the top factors you should consider with regard to SEO if you are an entrepreneur new to the SEO world.
“I see SEO becoming a normalized marketing tactic, the same way TV, radio, and print are traditionally thought of as marketing tactics.”
- Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager, Bing
- Start with the keywords
The first thing I would start doing if I were you is keyword research. It may sound advanced, but it is in fact more simple than it appears to be. The analysis can even be done by Google’s own tool called Google Adwords.
A keywords analysis provides you with an overview of how many monthly searches there are for your keywords, in addition to how much competition they are up against. Thus, the analysis is a way to show you what your potential customers are searching for.
This way, you also find out where you stand in relation to your competitors – which keywords do they use and which keywords can you differentiate yourself from them on?
- Have quality content
Once I have found relevant keywords, I’d dive into the deep end and begin writing great texts for my website that utilize the keywords – for example, texts providing good advice for readers or specific product pages. Then, I would create landing pages for the most important keywords (subpages of a website that are optimized in order to be found on Google through specific keywords).
But what does good content look like on Google?
What defines good text on Google is determined by its algorithm, based on what we as users seem to find good.
Therefore, a good text is, first and foremost, written and worded in a grammatically correct manner. Following this, the text must be informative and explanatory with regard to the given keyword – and from here, you just have to make the content captivating and super catchy.
Some extra tips could be to write:
- In short sentences
- Many paragraphs and have many headlines
- using italics, bold, or underlined keywords
- Remember the small details for Google
And after all this, what is left is few, but great texts on Google’s first page.
This is because, when writing good quality content, there are some guidelines that Google follows, which means I would advise you to consider making a checklist.
Google emphasizes that the keyword must appear clearly, which is as a newbie you need to remember to:
- write your keywords in your headlines (also referred to as H1)
- write your keywords in at least one of your subheadings (referred to as H2)
- naturally incorporate the keyword throughout the main text itself
This is because you help Google understand what kind of keywords you want to be found on in the search engine.
“Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.”
- Phil Frost, Main Street ROI
- Optimize your meta tags
Once the well-written text is ready, my next step is to optimize my meta tags. Specifically, my meta titles and meta descriptions.
Your meta title and description are the two things that searchers on Google will see in the search results and can click on – what you also call the SERP, which essentially exemplifies what you are going to find on the page once you click on it.
Therefore, your meta tags should be designed to contain the keyword, provide relevant information, and try to capture the reader’s interest so that they click on your company’s link.
There are many extra details that surround your meta tags, which is where we can step in and help you. At Webamp, for example, we have developed our own tool for writing meta tags, both search engine friendly and click friendly (though there are also other useful tools out there on the web).
- Write for Google – but also for people
Last, but certainly not least, it is important to think about your potential customers when writing, and not just ticking boxes for Google’s algorithm as, after all, the content is meant to captivate people, not just exist on the first page. This is incredibly important to remember.
Therefore, I would also recommend that you think about writing to people, not robots, when you are writing to rank first place on Google. Google will also reward you for that – because, as I said, Google tries to adapt to its users’ demands.
“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.”
- Wendy Piersall
Just knowing the basics of SEO can help you become visible
There are more than 200 parameters that Google uses to rank websites – but with these five tips in mind, as a beginner you can achieve noticeable results within SEO.
Go ahead and try it out within your company, and if you need any help, my own company, Webamp, is ready to help you with your SEO to get awesome results.
If you want to get a free review, we can provide you with an SEO ‘health check’ right now.
